1. Reading 4.3 talks about the main difference between owners and employees being where their income comes from. Employees earn their income from working while owners make a majority of their income from businesses and investments. The reading argues that employees need to sell their labor to make a living while owners build their wealth from the labor of others. For instance an owner would be someone who earns profits from a large corporation. An employee would be an office worker, a teacher, etc..
2. Adam Smith’s quote means that goods and services get their real value from labor. Natural resources by themselves hold no value. Not unless there’s people that use their skills to make them into useful products. This quote is used to argue that workers make wealth through their labor. It’s also mentioned that workers usually only get part of the value that they produce while the business owners keep the majority profits. All in all the quote shows that labor is the true source of economic value.
3. I think reading 4.4 makes a pretty convincing argument about class being different from identities like race and gender. In the reading it’s explained that class is based on a person’s relationship to work and ownership instead of personal characteristics. It’s also argued that people can move between social classes sometimes while race and gender can’t be chosen. At the same time class can influence a person’s experiences or opportunities. I think it would be helpful to see class as a social and economic relationship instead of an identity.
4. I understand the argument as basically saying that class structures are based on people depending on one another for different economic roles. So that would mean workers depend on their employers for wages and job opportunities, while employers depend on their workers to produce goods and generate profits. This establishes a close relationship between the two groups where each group relies on each other. But they do not have equal power. For instance, restaurant owners would have to depend on their cooks and waitresses to keep the business running smoothly. While the employees would depend on the owners for their income. This would be what is discussed in the readings as the foundation of class relationships.

Reading 4.3 explains that owners control businesses, property, or resources, while employees have to sell their labor to get by. For example, an owner might have a factory, company, land, or store. An employee is someone who works there for wages but does not own the business or share in the profits.

To me, Adam Smith’s quote means that labor is the true source of value. Before money, profit, and property mattered so much, people survived by making or producing things through their own work. Labor is more than just a job; it is what creates wealth from the start.

I agree with Reading 4.4’s point that class is not just an identity. Class is not about how someone feels or what label they pick. It is about a person’s place in society and their connection to work, money, and ownership. Even if someone identifies differently, if they need to work for wages to live, they are still part of the working class.

When Reading 4.4 says class structures are based on a close kind of dependency, I take it to mean that owners and workers rely on each other, but not in the same way. Owners need workers to make profits, and workers need owners for jobs and wages. For example, in a fast-food restaurant, the owner needs employees to cook, clean, and serve, while employees need the job for income. The relationship is close, but it is not equal because the owner usually has more control.

1. Reading 4.3 explains that owners and employees live completely different economic lives. Owners make their money from other people’s hard work things like stocks, rent, and business profits. They don’t have to work to survive because their money “works” for them. Employees, on the other hand, have to sell their labor to live. Their income comes from wages or salaries, not investments. For example, an owner is someone who owns a big company or a lot of rental property and lives off the profits from it. An Example of an employee can be a teacher, cashier, delivery driver, or anyone who depends on their paycheck.
2. Adam Smith is basically saying that labor is what gives everything its real value. Money is just a symbol but the actual worth of something comes from the effort a human put to work that went into making it. Nothing becomes valuable until someone puts labor into it. A tree isn’t worth anything until workers cut it, shape it, ship it, and turn it into something useful. Labor is the foundation of all wealth.
3. I think the reading makes a strong point. It says class isn’t just a label you claim, like race or gender. It’s a position/role in the economy that shapes your whole life. You’re either someone who owns the things society needs (like businesses and property), or you’re someone who has to work for those people to survive. So, class isn’t about how you feel or what lifestyle you have but it’s about power, and who depends on who. That’s why the reading argues class is more than an identity. It’s a structure that affects everything else, including race and gender inequality.
4. I understand the argument about class dependency as saying that workers and capitalists are tied together in a very direct way. Workers need capitalists for jobs, income, and basic survival. But at the same time, capitalists can’t make any profit without workers doing the actual labor. So both sides depend on each other, but not equally because workers usually feel the pressure more because losing a job affects their whole life. An example of this is when workers go on strike. A company can’t function without them, and suddenly you see how much the owners rely on the people doing the everyday work. That’s the “close dependency” the reading is talking about.

1. What is the distinction that Reading 4.3 makes between owners and employees? Give an example of each.From Reading 4.3, I learned that the main difference between owners and employees is where their income comes from. Owners make most of their money from things they own, such as businesses, investments, stocks, or property, while employees make their money by working and earning wages or salaries. Before reading this, I mostly thought of owners as just people who run businesses, but the reading helped me understand that ownership is more about earning income from the labor and production of others.An example of an owner would be someone who owns a corporation and receives profits from it. An example of an employee would be a teacher, nurse, or retail worker who depends on a paycheck from their job.2. How do you understand the quote by Adam Smith on page 28? What is it saying about labor?I understand Adam Smith’s quote as saying that labor is what creates value. The reading helped me see that products do not become valuable on their own. People have to work to create, produce, transport, and sell them. Even something as simple as a piece of furniture starts as a tree, and many workers are involved before it becomes something that can be sold.I have gained a deeper understanding that labor is the foundation of wealth because without workers there would be no goods or services. The quote seems to suggest that labor is the real source of value, while money is simply a way of measuring that value.3. What are your thoughts on the main argument of Reading 4.4 that class is NOT an identity?I have gained a deeper understanding of why the author argues that class is not just an identity. At first, it can seem similar to other identities because people often describe themselves as working class, middle class, or upper class. However, the reading explains that class is more about a person’s relationship to work, ownership, and power in society than about how they identify themselves.What stood out to me was the idea that workers and owners have different positions within society that affect their interests and opportunities. Because of this, the author argues that class is a social structure rather than simply an identity. While I still think people can identify with their class, I understand why the reading says class is more than just a label.4. How do you understand the argument Reading 4.4 makes when stating that “class structures are built around a close form of dependency”? What is this close form of dependency, and can you think of an example?

I understand this argument as meaning that workers and employers rely on each other in a direct way. Workers depend on employers for jobs and income, while employers depend on workers to do the labor that keeps the business operating and profitable. The reading helped me see that this relationship creates a close form of dependency because neither side can completely function without the other.A good example would be a grocery store. Employees depend on the store for their paychecks, but the store owner also depends on the employees to stock shelves, assist customers, and keep the store running. If workers stopped working, the business would struggle to operate. This example helped me better understand what the reading means by dependency between workers and employers.

What I took from Reading 4.3 is that the real difference between owners and employees isn’t how hard they work, it’s where their money comes from. Employees depend on a paycheck, while owners make money from businesses, property, investments, or from the work being done by other people. A construction worker, teacher, or cashier needs to keep working to get paid. Someone who owns a company can keep making money even when they aren’t directly doing all of the work themselves.

The Adam Smith quote made me think about how easy it is to forget where value actually comes from. We see products on a shelf and don’t think about everything that went into making them. Somebody had to design it, build it, transport it, and sell it. Without labor, nothing really gets produced. The product is what we see, but the labor behind it is what made it possible in the first place.

The argument that class is not an identity was probably the most interesting part of the reading for me. A lot of people describe themselves as middle class almost automatically, even if their situations are completly different. The reading seems to be saying that class isn’t really about what label you choose for yourself. It’s more about your relationship to work, money, and ownership. Two people might both say they’re middle class, but one lives off investments while the other depends on a weekly paycheck. That’s a pretty big difference.

When the reading talks about a “close form of dependency,” I understood that as owners and workers needing each other, even if they don’t always have the same interests. A restaurant is a good example. The owner needs cooks, servers, and staff or the business doesn’t function. At the same time, the employees depend on that job for income. Neither side can really operate alone. It’s a relationship where both sides rely on each other, even though they’re in very different positions within the bussiness.

1. Reading 4.3 makes the distinction between owners and employees based strictly on how they get their wealth, not how much they spend. Owners make their living by owning assets that generate cash from other people’s effort, while employees survive by selling their own time and energy for a paycheck. For example, an owner would be a logistics tycoon who profits off an entire fleet of shipping trucks without driving a single mile themselves. An employee would be the commercial truck driver hired by that owner, who has to spend twelve hours on the road just to secure a fixed daily wage.
2. The quote by Adam Smith on page 28 means that human labor is the actual foundation of all value in the world. Before money or corporate stocks existed, it took literal human sweat to turn raw materials into useful objects. Smith is arguing that when you buy a product with cash, you are not just buying a physical object, you are buying the total hours of someone else’s life and hard work that went into producing it. It reminds us that every piece of wealth is paid for by someone else’s labor.
3. Paul Heideman’s main argument in Reading 4.4 that class is not an identity is a massive eye opener because it goes against how everyone usually talks about social status. Most people treat class like a cultural aesthetic or a vibe, defining it by things like how you talk, where you shop, or what music you like. Heideman shatters this by arguing that class is an objective, physical position in an economic structure. You can wear thrifted clothes, eat fast food, and identify with the streets, but if you own a massive corporation and live off the surplus value of five hundred workers, your actual class is the capitalist elite. Your feelings do not change your economic reality.
4. The close form of dependency that Heideman talks about in Reading 4.4 means that the capitalist class and the working class are trapped in an inescapable economic lock where they rely on each other to survive, but the dynamic is completely unequal. The business owner is entirely dependent on the workers to show up and create the goods that generate profit. Meanwhile, the workers are entirely dependent on the owner for a paycheck because they do not own the tools, factories, or offices needed to produce wealth on their own. A perfect example of this is a tech startup. The founder depends entirely on software engineers to write the code that makes the company valuable, while those engineers depend entirely on the founder’s capital for a monthly salary to pay their rent in the city.

1. The distinction between owners and employees in reading 4.3 is emphasized that the real difference is not income level but control over productive assets and the dependency relationship that follows from it. Parenti explains that “owners” include both wealthy corporate shareholders and small business proprietors. Though the latter “hardly qualify as part of the corporate owning class” because they are often “squirrels dancing among the elephants” who get crushed by larger corporations (Parenti 27). Owners earn income from what they own, not from selling their labor. Employees, on the other hand, must work for wages to survive and include not only factory and service workers. Also, professionals and managers, who “are employees whose task is to extract more value-producing performance from other employees” (Parenti 27). For example, a major shareholder of Exxon would be considered an owner. While a store manager at Target would be considered an employee because they depend on their job for income and do not control the productive assets of the company.
2. Adam Smith’s statement that labor is the “real price” of goods means that labor is the true source of all economic value, regardless of how money disguises that fact (Parenti 28). Parenti uses this quote to show that nothing becomes a profitable good until human labor transforms it. Whether harvesting timber, manufacturing goods, transporting them, or selling them. This knowledge emphasizes the exploitation system of capitalism. Workers create far more value than they receive in wages. As Parenti notes, manufacturing workers produced $1.64 trillion in value but were paid only $363 billion, meaning they received “less than one-fourth of the market value created by their labor” (Parenti 28). Smith’s point is that labor is the foundation of all wealth. However, under capitalism workers only receive a fraction of what they produce. While the surplus value is kept by owners.
3. Reading 4.4 argues that social class is not part of one’s identity but rather a structural relationship of dependency and exploitation. I believe that one’s class becomes part of a person’s identity because of how deeply it shapes their lived experience. Class influences where people live, the opportunities available to them, their health outcomes, and their overall quality of life. All of which shapes how individuals see themselves and how society perceives them. While Heideman emphasizes that class should be understood primarily as a material relationship rather than a cultural identity. The reality is that people internalize the effects of class because it impacts their daily lives so significantly. For that reason, class may not be an identity, but it becomes one in practice because it shapes who we are and opportunities.
4. Reading 4.4 states that “class structures are built around a close form of dependency” (Heideman 5). It means that workers are financially dependent on capitalists for survival in a way that goes beyond normal means of relationships. Workers must compete for jobs, convince employers to hire them, and maintain high productivity to avoid being replaced. Developing a direct dependency on the capitalist who controls access to wages, benefits, and stability. This dependency is reinforced by the fact that the top 1 percent own “between 40 and 50 percent of the nation’s total wealth” (Parenti 29). While most families have “little or no net assets,” making it extremely difficult to escape one’s class position (Parenti 29). An example of this dependency is a retail worker who relies on their employer not only for income but also for health insurance and scheduling. If the employer cuts hours or closes stores, the worker immediately loses stability. This demonstrates how class is rooted in material dependence, making it hard to “break out” of one’s class position without violating laws or resorting to desperate measures.

Heideman, Paul . “Class Rules Everything around Me.” Jacobin.com, jacobin.com/2019/05/working-class-structure-oppression-capitalist-identity.

Parenti, Michael. “Democracy for the Few, Wadsworth, p. 27 – 29.

Parenti, Michael. Democracy for the Few. 9th ed., Wadsworth, 2011.

Heideman, Paul. “Class Rules Everything Around Me.” Jacobin, 2017.

Ameerah Jameer

1. Reading 4.3 distinguishes owners and employees by who controls wealth and who works for a paycheck. Owners are people who own businesses or investments and can live off the wealth they generate be it small business owners or big company . An example of an Owner is Amazon’s Jeff Bezo. Employees on the other hand are people who work for income paid by a owner. That includes a range of workers from factory workers, teachers, doctors, to even corporate managers and executives.

2. Adam Smith’s quote means labor is the real backbone of value. He is basically saying that it is not money that gives something its worth; money is just a number we assign to things. What actually makes something valuable is the work that went into creating it. Labor is what transforms raw materials into something useful and sellable. Human effort is the real value.

3. The main argument of Reading 4.4 is that class is not just an identity like race or gender but it is a structure. Depending on where you fall in that structure, you are either a capitalist or a worker, and that determines what you do and how you live. It does not matter if you are a teacher, a lawyer, or apple picker, if you work for a paycheck, you are in the working class. That position in the structure is what defines your class, not how you identify.

4. Class structures are built around a close form of dependency because capitalists and workers are essentially codependent on each other. Workers need jobs to survive and pay for basic necessities like food and shelter. But capitalists also need workers because without them there is no production, no product, and no profit. It like a bad marriage were neither side can fully function without the other. A good example is the Long Island Railroad strike that happened here in New York. The workers stopped showing up and it immediately disrupted everything, hundreds of thousands of commuters could not get to work and the MTA was under enormous pressure to resolve it fast. That is the close form of dependency the reading is talking about, the workers used that dependency as leverage to demand better conditions, and it worked because the railroad simply could not function without them.